1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a terminal apparatus, a consumables residual quantity display program, and a recording medium; and especially relates to a terminal apparatus for displaying a residual quantity of consumables, a computer-readable consumables residual quantity display program, and a recording medium for storing the program.
2. Description of the Related Art
Printing apparatuses (printers) use consumables such as a toner and sheets of paper. When the quantity of one of the consumables becomes small, a user replenishes the supply of that consumable. Various inventions concerning management of the quantities of the consumables have been made.
Patent Reference JPA H11-327383 discloses a recording apparatus wherein a blanket process of providing warning is carried out if a “near-end” or an “end” situation of the consumables is detected. Here, the “near-end” is the case wherein the residual quantity becomes less than a predetermined threshold value, that is, the consumables are almost running out; and the “end” is the case wherein the consumables have run out. Specifically, if the residual quantity of the toner, for example, is approaching nil (“near-end”), or has reached nil (“end”), a user is notified.
Further, if the residual quantity of stacked paper is approaching nil or has reached nil, warning can be provided by, e.g., SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol).
However, in the recording apparatus disclosed by Patent Reference 1, if the residual quantity of the consumable is in the “end” or “near-end” state, warning is provided in a blanket manner, that is, every time the “end” or “near-end” state is detected, warning is repetitively provided, which is annoying and troublesome. In other words, the conventional technique has a problem in that the consumables residual quantity information is not effectively provided to the user.